


i like to spend time with you

by sepiaparrish



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Friendship, Gen, nothing else to say really, they go to the movies and talk about feelings yeah :)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:20:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27997407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sepiaparrish/pseuds/sepiaparrish
Summary: juno and rita go to the movies :)
Relationships: Rita & Juno Steel
Comments: 3
Kudos: 28





	i like to spend time with you

**Author's Note:**

> this is my fic for the first event of @thepenumbranet on tumblr! i'm one of the administrators! you should go follow us there we're cool >:) thanks to the lovely raegan @sapphic-loser on tumblr for beta reading this!

They didn't do this often, but after the incident at Polaris Park, Juno needed something to distract him, and Rita was always willing to hang out with one of her two best friends in the world. This time they'd walked, because Franny needed the car and it gave them more time to talk. Rita was wearing her ridiculous theater shoes, what Earth people called tap shoes, and they made a little clack on the pavement with every step. That paired with her undying chattering made the walk almost overwhelming, but Juno didn't mind. He liked spending time with Rita. 

"So what movie should we see, Mistah Steel? A Rose From Me To You sounds so sweet! Or or or we could see a comedy! There's Trainwrecked, or Card Castle," Rita talked a mile a minute and Juno made a face after each new title. "That's supposed to be really good, Franny saw it and she said the flamingos looked real though of course I don't know where she's seen flamingos before, or we could see a mystery!! Oh, Mistah Steel we should see a mystery and you can solve it with your detective powers!!" 

"Mystery solving is my job, Rita, I don't want to do it on my day off." 

"Fair enough boss...oh what about a heist!! The Hidden City looks really good!" 

"Yeah... not a bad idea, Rita." 

It was a good choice, a great one even, until Juno left the theater in a rush midway through the movie. Rita went after him, but she wasn't particularly happy to miss the ending. 

"Awww BOSS," she'd found him standing on the corner of the sidewalk, arms tucked tightly to his sides as he slouched against the wall of the theater. "I wanted to know the end! The heist was just kicking off, I wanted to see what would happen to Miss Annabel! If she would steal the diamond or get caught by the museum guards. It was exciting!" 

"Rita, you saw a movie with that basic plot two weeks ago. It was boring. I already knew where it was heading." Juno's tone was clipped and bordering on frustration. Rita realized he didn’t look so much like he was slouched against the building anymore, it looked more like he was supporting himself. As though he would fall over if he stood up straight. "But you can stay and finish it if you want, I'm heading back to the office." He pushed off of the wall and started walking down the sidewalk, his steps unsure and unbalanced. "I forgot to do some, uh...paperwork. For the last case." 

Well that certainly wasn't correct. Rita knew for a fact that Juno would never choose paperwork over...well, anything else. It was just as rare as a blue rabbit, not impossible, very improbable. She took a long minute to look longingly back at the theater before running after him. 

"Bossssss! Oh Mistaaaah Steeeeellll!!! Some of us don't have long legs like certain detectivesssss!!!!!" Her fancy theater shoes were ideal for making tappity tap noises but not at all ideal to run in. 

Juno turned back to see her running after him and slowed to a stop, looking very put out by it. When she'd caught up and caught her breath, she linked her arm with his with an air of  
contentment. 

"What a fine day for a walk, Mistah Steel!" She paused in case he had something to say before barreling ahead. "Anyway the real reason I wanted to finish that movie is the main character, Miss Annabel, reminded me of a character in a book I've been reading, Mistah Steel! That's right! A book! Franny's book club has been going quite swell!! Of course it's just Franny and me, but still! We've read a whole series now! It's about a master thief which is why it reminded me of the movie, and it’s about his romance with this lady! Maybe you've heard of it, it's quite popular lately, it's by Bartholomew Scoundrel and call-aw, boss, what's the matter?" 

His face had gone all crumbly, like a cookie falling to bits. "It's nothing, it's-" he cleared his throat. "Anyway what were you saying about this Bethany Scamp?" 

"Not his name" 

"Bertrand Scandal?" 

“Bartholomew Scoundrel, boss, are you trying to change the subject?" 

"I'm fine, Rita." 

Her shoes made one final clack as she came to a halt, pulling on Juno's arm until he stopped too. He was hiding his face, looking at the sky as though waiting for an Earth elephant to fall from it. 

"BOSSSS," he looked down, but over her right shoulder. "Mistah Steeeel" he reluctantly met her eyes. 

"I'm. Fine." 

"Then why'd you leave the theater boss?" 

"Didn't want to finish the movie, what, is that a crime?" 

"Good thing it ain't, because you'd have to solve the case of the unwatched movie! But, Mistah Steel, I don't think you're being honest with me." 

"I am-!" He cut his own cry of indignation off with a sigh. "No, you're right. I'm not. The movie reminded me of a dangerous mission I was on recently. The one where I left you a voice message. That's all." 

"That's all!?" Rita spluttered "Boss the message you left made it sound like you were dying! You asked me to take a month off and close the office! You came back missing an eye and won’t tell me anything, which I get that must’ve been very stressful and if you can’t talk about it that’s fine but it was scary! And what about that guy you talked about! "A guy does that for you do you have to trust him back?"??!! You can't just keep it to yourself forever Mistah Steel! You’ve been avoiding talking about it and you don’t need to tell me if you really don’t want to but, well! You're my best friend!! I deserve to at least know a little, you had me worried sick and running around like a, like an ostrich with its head cut off and you didn’t warn me before you left and you wouldn’t talk about it when you got back and that's not fair Mistah Steel!!!" 

"You're fired." Juno kicked a pebble and stopped walking. "Fine. but can we go sit somewhere to talk about this?" 

When they were both seated on a park bench it took several tries for Juno to find his voice. Finally though, he began to speak. 

"He...was the guy who helped me on the Kanagawa case. Or, tricked me I guess. He came back to help me with a bigger case. It turned out to be even bigger than I thought and it was scary, Rita. I thought I was going to die, I thought he was going to die, and it was horrible, but we didn’t. I don’t...I don’t really want to talk about that. Maybe I will, one day, but anyway, he asked me to come with him afterwards. To go with him on his adventures. And I said I would and then I just, well I didn't. I went back to the office instead. While he was still sleeping. I just..."  
Juno took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

"I just left him, and talk about not fair, Rita. We'd both been through something horrible and I promised I wouldn't leave him and I did and I'm still not fully sure why. And, Rita, y'know I think that...I think that I fell in love with him." 

"So why didn't you go, boss?" 

"I don't know." 

Rita held out her hand, and Juno took it. She laced their fingers together and met his eye. 

"You know boss, I'm glad you didn't go. Selfish maybe but I woulda missed you and I would've been worried. You're my best friend Mistah Steel, even more than Franny but don't go telling her that," 

"Yeah I-I would've missed you too, Rita. I think that might've been a part of it. I would've missed you, and Mick, and Sasha, hell, I would've missed the rabbits. But I don't think I would miss Hyperion, not fondly at least but I would...well, actually. No, I'd miss Hyperion city too, because it's bad here but it's still my city. It's still apart of me. I wasn't ready to go with him and I'm not sure I ever will be, but still. I miss him. And it isn't because I need him, I don't need anyone. I can go it alone, I usually do. It's that I want someone. And that's selfish of me because this isn't always safe work, you saw that at Polaris Park, I was so scared you were going to get hurt because if you did it would be my fault for bringing you into it. But, well. I want someone. I don't want to go it alone. I'm just not ready to be part of a duo like that, up in space, a new planet each week, Juno Steel and...whatever name he's going by. I don't know-" he stopped. 

"Mistah STEELLL" Rita dragged out the vowels of Steel as she did when she was her most exasperated. "You do have someone! You have me, and you have Mr. Mercury and you have Ms. Wire and whoever this fella is I'm sure despite whatever happened you still have him too. We know you don't need anyone but we want you to have us. We want to be there for you, we like it! And if I'd gotten hurt at Polaris Park, which I didn't because you're very talented Mistah Steel, you're very good at your job, it wouldn't even be your fault! I wanted to be there with you and I am in charge of myself and can look out for myself even, but I'm glad to hear you care, it's very sweet boss. And and and! I love you very much boss and if you ever want to go to space I would LOVE to tag along!" Rita's eyes lit up. "Mistah Steel and Rrrrrita! Fighting crime in space! They could make a stream out of that Mistah Steel, I would most certainly watch it and-" 

Juno hugged her. She hugged him back, and didn't say anything when he shook a little with what she guessed were tears. "This is nice, boss! Not sure if you've ever started a hug before, this is good!" He let go of her pretty quickly and found her grinning ear to ear. "So boss..." 

"Yeah Rita?" 

"Next time you go on a dangerous mystery case you'll tell me before instead of leaving a terrifying voice message, right?" 

"I'll do my best. I'm sorry, Rita," Juno began, uncertainly searching for what he was saying sorry for. Running out of the theater, the message, the days when he was angry, the times when he wasn't as kind to her as he should be. 

"Already forgiven, Mistah Steel." She smiled at him, and he got the feeling she knew what he was trying to convey. Still would be nice if he could actually say it. "Hey boss, can we go get ice cream?" Her eyes lit up like every light in every apartment window of the city had condensed into one thing and taken up residence behind her pupils. 

He shook his head, but he was smiling. "Yeah sure, Rita." 

They headed off down the street, Rita chattering about her books and streams and Juno adding in witty commentary when needed. All in all, it wasn't an entirely unsuccessful day out.


End file.
